The gray kingbird or grey kingbird (''Tyrannus dominicensis''), also known as pitirre, petchary or white-breasted kingbird, is a passerine bird. The species was first described on the island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and th ...

, then called Santo Domingo, thus the ''dominicensis'' name.

Habitat

This tyrant flycatcher is found in tall trees and shrubs, including the edges of savanna and marshes. It makes a flimsy cup nest in a tree. The female incubates the typical clutch of two cream eggs, which are marked with reddish brown.

Description

The adult gray kingbird is an average-sized kingbird. It measures in length and weighs from . The upperparts are gray, with brownish wings and tail, and the underparts are white with a gray tinge to the chest. The head has a concealed yellow crown stripe, and a dusky mask through the eyes. The dark bill is heavier than that of the related, slightly smaller, tropical kingbird. The sexes are similar, but young birds have rufous edges on the wing coverts, rump and tail.

Call

The call is a loud rolling trill, ''pipiri, pipiri'', which is the reason behind many of its local onomatopoeiac names, like ''pestigre'' or ''pitirre'', in the Spanish-speaking Greater Antilles, or ''petchary'' in some of the English-speaking islands.

Diet and behaviour

Gray kingbirds wait on an exposed perch high in a tree, occasionally

sallying out Hawking is a feeding strategy in birds involving catching flying insects in the air. The term usually refers to a technique of sallying out from a perch to snatch an insect and then returning to the same or a different perch, though it also appli ...

to feed on insects (such as

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

s, dragonflies, wasps and beetles), their staple diet. They also eat small fruits and berries depending on its availability. Fruits and berries make up one fifth of their daily diet. Spiders and small

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

s are occasionally eaten.https://sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Tyrannus_dominicensis%20-%20Grey%20Kingbird%20or%20Pitirre.pdf Like other kingbirds, these birds aggressively defend their territory against intruders, including

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s and much larger birds such as crested caracaras, red-tailed hawks and broad-winged hawks by mobbing.

Distribution

It is found in increasing numbers in the state of Florida, and is more often found inland though it had been previously restricted to the coast. It breeds from the extreme southeast of the United States, mainly in Florida, as well as Central America, and through the West Indies south to Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, the Guianas, and

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. Northern populations are migratory, wintering on the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

coast of Central America and northern South America. Several vagrant populations are known to exist in the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...

Gallery

Tyrannus_dominicensis_-Dominican_Republic-8.jpg Tyrannus dominicensis - Puerto Rico.jpg Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis) RWD1.jpg

References

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External links

Videos, photos & sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection
Bird sounds
- Florida Museum of Natural History {{Taxonbar, from=Q945200 gray kingbird Native birds of the Southeastern United States Birds of the Caribbean Birds of the Dominican Republic Birds of Venezuela gray kingbird gray kingbird